Iran

KERMAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian officials tried Friday to link Israel and the U.S. to an Islamic State group-claimed suicide bombing while speaking to a mass funeral for some of the 89 people killed in the attack, seeking to intertwine the assault with wider Middle East tensions from the Israel-Hamas war.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to make the link without offering evidence for their claims. The gathered crowd in front of flag-draped caskets shouted in response: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

TEHRAN, Jan 2 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran said yesterday, it would reserve the right to respond to the recent assassination of a veteran Iranian commander in Syria “at the appropriate place and time.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, at a weekly press conference in the capital Tehran, condemned Israel for attacking a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who was in Damascus to fight terrorism, at the request of the Syrian government.

TEHRAN, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said on Monday, the day Iran became an official BRICS member, that the multilateral platform provided by the BRICS enables Iran to grasp more opportunities to boost economic cooperation with other countries and better serve its national interests.

TEHRAN, Dec 28 (NNN-XINHUA) — Iran and Iraq on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on providing training courses for workers in the oil sector, Shana News Agency affiliated with the Iranian Oil Ministry reported.

The MoU was signed between Mehdi Ali-Madadi, Iran’s deputy oil minister for management and human resources development, and Bassim Mohammed Khudair, Iraqi deputy oil minister for extraction affairs, in the Iranian capital of Tehran, the report said.

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Iran executed on Friday four people, including a woman, whom it accused of being "saboteurs" with links to Israel's Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said.

The executions took to five the number of people put to death this month in a decades-long shadow war that has seen Iran accuse Israel of attacks on its nuclear effort, charges the latter has never confirmed or denied.

TEHRAN, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's nuclear chief dismissed claims that the country had increased its production of highly enriched uranium as "media hype," the Iranian Students' News Agency reported Wednesday.

Mohammad Eslami, president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, made the comments on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting, responding to a statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) summarizing a confidential report leaked to Reuters.

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Azerbaijan have agreed to open a new transit passage at their shared border in the near future, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Friday.

In a phone call with Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations, especially in the economic, transportation and energy sectors, the report said.

TEHRAN, Dec 11 (NNN-TASNIM) – A huge fire broke out yesterday morning, at an oil refinery in the eastern Iranian province of South Khorasan, leading to the simultaneous explosion of several gas condensates reservoirs.

The fire started at one of the reservoirs of the mini-refinery, which is located in Birjand Special Economic Zone, at 8:45 a.m. local time (0515 GMT), the report said.

8 December 2023; MEMO: Iranian judicial authorities, on Thursday, announced the seizure of two vessels over alleged smuggling of fuel in the Persian Gulf, Anadolu Agency reports.

Mojtaba Ghahrami, Chief Justice of the southern Hormozgan province, said two vessels carrying 210,000 litres of “smuggled fuel” were seized in the waters of Qeshm Island, as reported by state media.

He said Iranian naval forces seized the two ships after identifying them and took 14 people on board into custody.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.

A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.

Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say if any animals were in the capsule.